No hate that a character's name has been "Anglicized"? Here I was, all ready to point out the blatant irony that would have been rampant in such hate, and now I find it not yet present. Saddening.

I'm a tad off-put by the lack of imagination in the re-writing of this movie. This appears to basically be the same story as the Western novel, just transplanted to Tokyo. Was the Western version not good enough? At least with The Magnificent Seven there were significant plot changes and a whole time period change. Had that movie depicted Americans running around with swords in 16th century Mexico with a nigh-identical plot, it would have been offensive to the culture that originally created it and ridiculous to any informed audience.

Kirsten Dunst, Dakota Fanning, Anna Paquin, etc have never been Disney stars, yet, have been cast as leads in Ghibli films. Disney doesn't always cast the flavor of the month in these films. In fact, they rarely do. At least all these girls have done great work.

Just got around to watching it in Japanese. Very pleased with how much it captured the feel of the first book, despite having been transplanted to Japan. For me it was very similar to Totoro in feel and pace.

I thought the voice acting was excellent. Mirai Shida in particular worked very well as Arrietty IMO - not bad for her first VA work (even considering she was a child actress).

More? The younger Jonas and Cyrus siblings were never exactly regulars on any Disney show...

PurpleWarrior13 wrote:

Kirsten Dunst, Dakota Fanning, Anna Paquin, etc have never been Disney stars, yet, have been cast as leads in Ghibli films. Disney doesn't always cast the flavor of the month in these films. In fact, they rarely do. At least all these girls have done great work.

I was referring to the Ponyo kids. You're right, Asrialys, but they're close enough to give me that worlds-clashing feeling I was referring to. And I'm not implying anything about anyone's quality of work based on that, as I said the Good Luck Charlie girl seems to be doing a good job with Arietty. I thought the Cyrus and Jonas kids were perfect as Ponyo and Sosuke. It just feels like a strange pairing to me, something I kind of have to get over before I can enjoy the voices for their own merit.

Are there any interview with the UK dub cast (Saoirse Ronan, Tom Holland, Olivia Colman, Mark Strong). I would like to see that. Also I wonder if ANN will do a dub comparison for Arrietty, like comparing the UK dub to the US dub and also the Japanese one also.

Anyway, the US dub is interesting from watching the video. Look's promising.

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